The Great Cherry Blossom Storm
by Obloquious
Summary: Naruto has to face his ex-girlfriend Sakura who's desperate to find something meaningful in a relationship.  After he talks her down she finds it in an unexpected source... and so the future continues, joy, sadness, age, it's all part of life.
1. Chapter 1 The Great Cherry Blossom Storm

Naruto could see the storm approaching in all of its dark glory. In its path concrete cracked and shattered, steel beams were bent out of proportion as wood disintegrated into billions of microscopic splinters. It was an insatiable storm, capable of crushing anything in its path. Naruto shuddered at the sight of the approaching storm...it was simply the most terrifying thing that he'd ever seen in his life, far worse than the Kyuubi, Madara Uchiha, the Akatsuki and any other villain combined and multiplied by one hundred. It was enough to make any man shudder, as he watched it approach he mused that this is the kind of thing that would make the infamous Sasuke Uchiha pale, and run away screaming like a village girl. He watched as the lazy Shikimaru Nara catch sight of the storm and the blood drained from his face as he forgot any lazy tendencies for the sake of survival as he ran as fast as he could. Indeed if people didn't run it's quite likely that even if they didn't die than they would certainly be bedridden for weeks to come. In theory he was the person that was the most likely to survive, considering that the Kyuubi regularly healed him just from the chakra being present, yet in reality he was also the person that was least likely to survive.

Instinctively he stepped out in front of his most precious charge, she'd been through far more than most people could even think about fabricating, and she'd come out of it as a better person...he was determined not to let anything hurt her like that ever again. He looked back into her eyes and found the strength that he needed to face the approaching storm. He turned back to face the storm and made his way towards the demon that was like a force of nature. Regardless of any inhibitions he decided to set his stance and he crouched down preparing to weather the maelstrom of pain that his now EX-girlfriend Sakura was about to deliver. He highly doubted that there would be any reasoning with the kunoichi...she'd always had a single minded determination to do things and she was loath to give up at any point. Unfortunately at this time that thing was a desire to kill him and destroy pretty much anything that was in the way of her warpath. As he looked into her approaching eyes he saw rage, and for a second realized that she must actually be in deep emotional pain. He knew that at some point he was going to have to defend himself, but the thing was that he didn't want to hurt her; unfortunately...she didn't share the feeling. Naruto mulled over how to stop her rampage without harming her as she picked up speed, running towards him, pulling out a kunai, absent mindedly, he wondered if she'd poisoned the kunai. She certainly looked like she was going to kill him and for now he decided to take punishment until he found how to stop her. He closed his eyes waiting for the pain as she was a few paces away from him and waited for the blows to come...and he waited...he opened his eyes and Sakura wasn't in front of him as he heard quick footsteps behind him getting further away, he spun around with a feeling of sick dread in the pit of his stomach as he saw her only moments away from striking his shocked charge.

He had to stop it, hundreds of plans went through his head at such a speed that it was incomprehensible until he settled on one that he believed would work. He honestly didn't enjoy using the Kyuubi's chakra, and he'd vowed not to use it unless it was for training or something urgent. This was unfortunately the second and he drew on the power of the Kyuubi and he pushed off of the ground with insane speed, yet even with his heightened senses and speed he realized that he couldn't make it, so he formed an arm out of chakra and it shot in between them almost instantaneously as he fused a piece of himself with the chakra and a form resembling Naruto rose out of the arm and grabbed her hand with the kunai, sucking the kunai into the body of chakra and forcing it to dissolve the kunai in a black core, with the other hand he grabbed her right fist before it mad contact and enveloped his body of chakra around hers, forcing her to be still and forcing her to kneel down on the ground. The hold of the chakra was firm, but powerful, few would've been able to break free from it, and in fact she almost did until he forced a wave of chakra into the form, forcing her to be still. He finally made it in front of her, and knelt wiping a tear from her face as she gave up.

"Why?" she whimpered as though she was searching for some deep and universal truth, like something deeply important, something that was immensely treasured, and yet somehow forgotten, sitting just beyond the tangible edges of ones living memory.

"Nani?" Naruto asked, perplexed, "Why what? I don't know what you mean?"

"Why did you leave me for someone like Hinata?" she cried.

Naruto thought for a moment...Why? It was a question that he'd never really bothered to ask himself before. He stood up and still glowing with the luminescence of the Kyuubi's chakra he looked sagely, like a philosopher that's in deep thought and looking for the truth of the universe, searching for the answer to some great and unknown mystery until he knelt back down in front of Sakura with embodying both pure understanding and pure confusion. "I know why, and yet it's hard to explain, like… trying to explain… what it's like to see to a blind man, like trying to describe green to a blind man. All throughout my life, until recently anyways, I thought that everybody despised me, I thought that there was nobody out there that understood how I was feeling. How was a young child supposed to know that he had the Kyuubi sealed within him? It wasn't until during the Chunin exams; just before my battle with Neji that I realized that not everybody outside of my team despised me. Honestly before that fight I believed that I couldn't win… I doubted myself. Yet the words that I needed to hear came from a completely unexpected source… someone that was generally always withdrawn and shy, they came from Hinata. Then in my battle with Pain, when I was at my most vulnerable time, when I'd practically given up hope, there she was fighting an impossible fight and she almost died doing so. All along she's been there, believing in me, always willing to give me exactly what I need. When I was with you, the person that for years I wanted the most, every moment I was with you… I felt and realized deep within my gut, that though at that time you were what I wanted, I realized that you weren't what I needed. I found myself realizing that all along it was somebody like Hinata that I truly needed.

Sakura looked up at him with tears and a deep seated pain in her eyes as he finished, it's the kind of pain that a person feels when they don't know where they truly belong and everywhere that they've thought to look is already gone or closed. "So if you're not the person that I've been looking and waiting for… than who is?" she asked with the deep pain evident in her choked voice and tear soaked face.

"I can't answer that, because I don't know… It's not my place to play matchmaker, only one can truly play that role and he's not present as we know it in our world. You have to find that person on your own or not at all… No one else can find that person for you" he replied as he released his chakra hold on Sakura and the bright and powerful chakra receded into his body. He stood up and walked over to Hinata who had a proud, jubilant and yet mournful face and took her hand, walking away as he spoke to Sakura, "Real love often comes from the most unexpected places, you may think that you've already searched everywhere in this world for that person, but that person could be far closer to you than you think."

Sakura watched as the man who she'd thought that she loved walked away that the girl that she'd just tried to severely maim… No… Kill. She thought about his words that he'd spoken with such clarity and authority and thought about it for a moment as she got up and felt the gentle hands of a friend helping her up and drying up her tears. She looked into his eyes and for once she didn't see a boy with a ridiculous haircut, a horridly green jumpsuit and bushy eyebrows that you could make a blanket out of. Instead as she looked into his eyes she saw something that she'd never taken the time to notice before. She saw the honest, gentle caring eyes of a friend, yet beyond that she saw love, simple and warm, yet elegant and beautiful. She forgot about his perceived flaws for a moment, filing them away in the back of her mind, after all… those can always be smoothed out at a later date. "Lee, would you like to go for a walk with me and talk for a bit?"

"Ummm… okay" he replied with a somewhat surprised look on his face and then joy on his face as he began running circles around Sakura whooping like a madman. As she walked forward, she calmly and purposefully put her hand out at the exact right moment and caught the idiot by the scruff of his neck with a slight look of exasperation on her face. Yes… there are definitely some edges that really, really needed smoothing out.

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><p>Obloquious<p>

Hello! I hope that you all enjoyed my first story on fan-fiction! What you see here is the third draft of this story, since after months I decided to go onto my i-pod and revise the story and am much happier with the final result. I honestly could've gone farther with this story and if I get enough people asking for it, somebody gives me a good idea which I wouldn't mind, or inspiration strikes, I honestly will continue with this story. As a final note I would appreciate some good and honest constructive criticism, I'd really like to hear what you liked, what you didn't like and what I could've done better, but please… no flames. I also have another story on the go so it would be great if I got some good reviews before I publish.


	2. Chapter 2 Hokage on a Special Day

Author's note: Here's Chapter 2...I'm not sure how you guy's will like it but I finally have it out. I should have the second chapter of Path of a Hyuga out soon which had a much stronger response than I expected... heck I almost had a heart attack that Saturday morning I checked my email. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters or... things... associated with it that are copyrighted. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto, etc.

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><p>It was about three years after what had come to be known as, "The Great Cherry Blossom Storm" and Konoha was enjoying one of its greatest moments of peace and prosperity as today was the day that they would accept a new Hokage, the Rokudaime Naruto Uzumaki. On this day Naruto was happy for two reasons… one was that his childhood dream of becoming Hokage was about to come true… and also that on this day, he was to be married.<p>

Naruto was walking through the streets of Konoha and was reminiscing his past. It had taken him so many years to finally reach this point at the age of twenty… the youngest Hokage in history. He'd been through war, had felt the sting of betrayal, and of loss. He'd faced his inner demons… both literal and figurative and come out on top, mastering himself.

Yes, both of his greatest dreams… though he certainly never shouted out to the world that he was going to be married to a gorgeous woman, it had been one of his dreams. In fact, it was such a great thing that he wasn't sure which was greater… for safety and happiness' sake he would go with marriage as being the better. It was rare that he ever made her mad… but when she was she was a force to be reckoned with.

Naruto entered the Hokage's tower thinking about how this would be the last time he entered the building as a jounin… and that tomorrow… or later that day, would be the first that he would enter the building as the Hokage. Well, that would be lying. In truth he wouldn't be anywhere near the Hokage's building for about two weeks unless it was truly urgent… Tsunade had insisted that he take two weeks off for a honeymoon with his wife.

Naruto was shaken out of his reverie when he arrived at the Hokage's tower at about six in the morning… under normal circumstances he never would've been up this early… or he would send a clone as he slept for a few more hours. But this was a special occasion, so he really had to be there in person. Naruto waved to the two chunin by the door to the Hokage's office with a nervous smile on his face… he never could remember their names.

He walked into Tsunade's office to surprisingly find her awake and finishing the paperwork that she hated so much. "Ah, Naruto…" Tsunade spoke, taking her eyes off of the paper, "Are you ready for today?"

"You know it Baa-chan!" he yelled out with a grin on his face.

Under normal circumstances his little nickname would've gotten under her skin… but she would let it slide for today. After all, why try sending him to the intensive care unit (which she knew he would be able to evade) she was plotting something else to pay him back for his term of endearment. A smile lit her face as she thought of all of the paperwork that wouldn't have to be completed for about two weeks plus a day. But that would have to wait, "Come on Naruto! Let's get you ready for your big day!"

After a few hours of preparations to ensure that everything in the village was set up, that Naruto would fit his new robes and hat which, unlike the first three kage's and the fifth were personally customized by their recipient. Naruto had chosen much of the traditional robes but he'd decided that there wasn't… quite flashy enough and had added bright flames that seemed to dance up the robe.

Much to his dismay he'd been forced to have his hair cut, if only to make it look neat for the morning as well as for the wedding which would be taking place at about noon… two hours after his being named Hokage.

Five minutes before Tsunade was to give her speech Naruto looked over to her and his fiancé and said with a tears in his eyes, "It's a shame my dad, my mom and pervy sage can't be here right now."

Hinata walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him as he broke down from both pride, and the fact that three of the people he would've wanted to see this the most were no longer alive… his parents dying to save Konoha when he was just a newborn.

Tsunade walked up to the edge of the tower and began her speech while Hinata spoke softly to Naruto, wiping away a few tears, "Are you ready?"

Naruto sniffed and straightened up, "…Yeah… yeah I'm ready." He walked over to Tsunade with Hinata on his arm as she announced his name as Hokage. Tsunade stepped back as Naruto took his place, "People of Konoha, it's with great honour and humility that I accept this position as the leader of your village. During my years of service as Hokage I promise to be fair and lead our village into a new golden age! I will work towards peace in the ninja world and should it come time I will put my life on the line to protect this village, and everyone within it! I am your Hokage!"

Naruto stepped back as Tsunade stepped forward and she spoke, quieting the crowd, "People of Konoha, I know that you're excited to have our new leader… but due to extenuating circumstances… such as marriage, he will be taking office in two weeks. Now, go celebrate!" At that the crowd exploded into cheers and they ran to go partying.

"Now Naruto, Hinata, I believe the two of you have some preparing to do… go on, enjoy your big day, I'll be there." Tsunade waved the two off as they bolted apart to go prepare for the wedding with a smile on her face.

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><p>Author's note #2: Hope you enjoyed... chapter 3 should be out sometime soon... this will probably end up being about a 5 chapter story, longer than originally intended but I suppose it happens. Please R&amp;R!<p>

Obloquious


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